Texas mom Leah Garcia wound up in a sticky situation after a clip of her waxing her 3-year-old daughter Bliss’ eyebrows went viral.
The mother of three, a realtor from Plainview, near Lubbock, found herself being virtually lashed by an incensed mob of more than 27.8 million TikTok viewers, calling her a “bad mom” and “f- -ked up,” shaming her for subjecting the toddler to the typically painful hair removal treatment.
Some of the anti-waxers even pointed to supermodel Sophia Hadjipanteli, 25, best known for rocking a massively fuzzy brow on the Chanel and Fenty Beauty runway, saying unkempt eyebrows are all the rage.
But the protective mama is fighting back. Garcia said she’d rather endure fiery epithets from strangers than subject her kiddie to getting teased for having a unibrow.
“I’m not injecting my kid with Botox, I’m just waxing her unibrow because she asked me to,” Garcia, 31, told The Post.
“It’s very easy to wax off a unibrow,” she added. “It’s not easy to [recover] from the trauma that comes with being bullied over something about yourself that you can’t control.”
Every 10 days, Garcia waxes herself; pre-schooler Bliss; her 11-year-old daughter Behautti ;and 20-year-old stepson Jaidyn. She uses a $40 Gigi wax machine, cotton strips and wax for sensitive skin. She said all of her family members consent to the hair removal.
The process involves applying a layer of heated wax directly to the skin near the eyes, placing the cotton strip atop the substance and ripping it away to uproot any unwanted whiskers.
Owing to their family’s inherited “bushy” brows, she began waxing Behautti when the girl was 3, and Jaidyn at age 7.
Garcia’s penchant for hair excision is rooted in her own childhood trauma.
“Even before I started kindergarten, I was bullied by adults and little kids for having this very thick unibrow,” she confessed, adding that her Hispanic parents forbade her from shaving, waxing or plucking her wooly patches, which would connect in the middle and shag down to her eyelids. “I’m not letting that happen to my kids.”
And she’s not alone in her waxy ways.
Under the hashtag #EyebrowWaxing, with over 186.3 million stamps on TikTok, hundreds of parents with small kids — some still in diapers — are unabashedly ripping away excess facial hair, giving their little ones more polished looks.
“First wax because her unibrow was growing in,” penned a Mississippi mom in the caption of her waddling baby’s inaugural peel.
“Time to get rid of my 6-year-old daughter’s unibrow,” bragged a San Diego-based dad in a video of his tyke’s transformation.
But online objectors argue that boys and girls under the age of 6 should be taught self-acceptance, rather than to alter themselves for mass appeal.
“A direct pathway to prioritizing external validation. Go to therapy,” said one outraged TikToker, responding to Garcia’s trending post.
“I had a unibrow. It didn’t bother me until maybe 3rd or 4th grade. Don’t let her think there is something wrong,” another scolded.
Digital grumbles aside, board-certified dermatologist Hadley King tells The Post that beauty treatments like eyebrow waxing, when performed in a safe way, won’t have long-term negative effects on the child’s skin.
However, she notes that the glam practice could affect a young kid’s self esteem.
“In one context, these procedures could be experienced as fun and exciting, or playful and silly,” said King, who’s based in Manhattan. “While in another context, one could come away from the experience having learned that their natural appearance wasn’t good enough.”
NYU Langone pediatrician Sara Siddiqui agrees, emphasizing to The Post that waxing is mostly safe for kids of all ages despite the risk of facial sensitivities, allergies to certain substances or contact irritation at the waxing site.
But she urges parents to be sure that undergoing the treatment is completely the child’s decision.
“We never want a child’s self confidence to be solely based on their external appearance, especially at a really young age,” said Siddiqui. “But if they’re asking [their mom and dad] to help them remove unwanted hair, then it’s important that the parents listen and assist them in finding a safe solution.”
In Garcia’s home, she said she teaches her kids to take pride in however they choose to self-express.
“I have very confident little girls,” she assured, “for us, waxing is just basic grooming.”
And to her haters, Garcia said, “Show me your unibrow!”
“Don’t talk to me about whether eyebrow waxing is right for my kids unless you’ve ever been bullied for having one big bushy eyebrow,” she said.
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